A Really Good Film Banned Worldwide

I recently had a chance to view Andrei Nekrasov’s ‘Magnitsky: Behind the Scenes.’ It crept up on me because of how little attention it got that normally you would hear about these things, but given the circumstances…

Note: The Magnitsky act is what the Saudis have been sanctioned with for the murder of Kashoggi. So this might be interesting for some people who follow the Kashoggi story.

The Magnitsky Act is a pretty big and complicated bipartisan bill that was signed by Obama in 2012. It alleges that a “lawyer” named Magnitsky was murdered in a Russian jail. It sanctions Russia for “Human Rights” abuses. Bill Browder, a hedge fund capitalist claimed that he had uncovered a plot whereby Russian police had laundered a piddly sum of $230 mil of Russian tax returns, through his company ‘Hermitage.’

Piddly because congress had used this sum as a vehicle to wage an economic war against Russia, but huge because they turned $230 mil into a historic scandal. Everyone will remember for a thousand years of how congress got duped by a miserly hedge fund capitalist.

Bill Browder had also claimed that he hired a young energetic “lawyer” called Sergei Magnitsky to investigate the plot.

Russia responded to Obama’s Magnitsky Act by banning child adoptions from Russia to the US. So you know this had everything to do with Hillary Clinton’s human trafficking.

The film starts out being very much pro-Browder. It was initially storyboarded as a film to promote Bill Browder’s tough stance on Russia. But after the scenes were shot and time came to edit, the film’s director Andrei Nekrasov noticed many inconsistencies.

One of them was Magnitsky’s profession. He was not a young energetic lawyer like Bill Browder had repeatedly claimed. He was an accountant. Second, Magnitsky had been working as an accountant for Hermitage for a number of years. Hermitage is Browder’s laundromat.

American russophobia is so bad that it is turning Anti-Kremlin critics into pro-Russian allies.

Andrei Nekrasov was an anti-Kremlin critic. He was the director of a documentary on Alexander Litvinenko, the guy who died of polonium poisoning. In the film, Nekrasov charges Putin as the man who was responsible for Litvinenko’s death. Litvinenko was a Russian dissident who fled to Britain. The film was called “Poisoned by Polonium.”

During the editing phase of ‘The Magnitsky Act,’ Nekrasov stumbled upon a press conference by western NGO’s whereby they presented photos of Magnitky’s arms covered in bruises. Browder’s PR team accused 8-10 prison guards of beating Magnitsky to his death.

The NGOs claimed that these photos + the documents attached, had been compiled by high profile intelligence agencies. Upon close examination, Nekrasov discovered that the photos and files were not inteligencia, but rather they were strictly derived from Bill Browder’s blog.

Furthermore, the bruises on Magnistky’s arms indicated that he had been restrained by handcuffs prior to his death. Magnitsky also had bruises on his knuckles, indicating that he had been banging on the prison cell door prior to his death.

Nekrasov tried to recreate the scene by asking 8 actors to fill a room. He found it extremely difficult to get 8 people to move around inside the room, let alone to have them swing their arms in order to beat a prisoner.

Nekrasov discussed this problem with the actors and a group of actual prison guards. The prison guards said that: to beat a prisoner, one would not need handcuffs. And especially given the wild allegations by Browder, 8 to 10 prison guards would easily accomplish the job. They would just go in and do it. Basically they were laughing at the stupid premise of 8 burly guards needing handcuffs to beat a single prisoner.

Nekrasov tried to contact Browder during the editing phase but Browder had purposely dodged all of his calls.

Nekrasov wanted to discuss the film’s final edits with Browder, but at this point Browder knew that the jig was up. Browder dodged all of Nekrasov’s calls for a short period before eventually succumbing to an interview. When Nekrasov confronted Browder with these facts, Browder got up off his seat and threatened Nekrasov with “American Retaliation.”

And it was all caught on film.

It was also at this point where it became apparent that it was actually the Hermitage company that had siphoned $230 mil from Russia’s tax system.

Nekrasov arranged a meeting between the actor who played the role of the chief police investigator and the actual Chief Police Investigator himself. The chief police investigator in the film was initially portrayed as the man who had orchestrated the $230 mil theft.

When the actor and the actual Police Chief met each other face to face, it became apparent that Browder’s story was complete fiction as it would not have been possible for this Police Chief to be walking and talking around freely.

It shatters the uniquely western phobia that Russia is a “cutthroat” state while simultaneously shattering Bill Browder’s narrative.

He would not be walking and talking freely in a “cutthroat” state that incarcerates its people on simple assumptions, and he would not be a free man giving interviews if he had actually been the beneficiary of the crime in Browder’s fantasies.

In closing

This was a brutal synopsis by yours truly I admit. I’m not overly familiar with the Magnitsky Act and all the perturbations that has since grown out of it. But I do recognize the many Obama’isms inside of this wholely Democrat fracas (where Democrats throw everything at the fridge door to see what sticks). You can see this in the way that they trash talk Donald Trump. They throw whatever at the fridge door to see what sticks. And this all happened during Obama’s administration: the high era of throwing things at the fridge door to see what sticks. The entire film does not mention the words “Donald Trump” at any point from beginning to the end. Yet in some circles (Reddit *koff *koff), Redditors cite this film as “prime evidence” of Trump physically being in Russia and personally orchestrating Russian meddling. Redditors assert that Putin is responsible for “Russian meddling,” while simultaneously asserting that Trump is choreographing Putin to do “Russian meddling.”